Disclaimer: Terrible language and swear words. Just wanted to put this out here.
"Were you in here all night?"
Steve paused running his hand through his hair and looked at the entrance where Nat stood. She had a change of clothes on and her growing hair was tied back in a ponytail.
"Yup," he grunted, running his hand over his face.
Nat crouched and then sat next to him on the floor, "Did you sleep? At all?"
Steve shook his head.
Nat looked at the cage where the Winter Soldier was sleeping or at least was laying down, with his back towards them. The cage was soundproof and the only way sound reached inside was via a mic system near the entrance panel. So, safe to say, he did not hear their conversation.
"Tried talking to him. Reminding him." he exhaled, "Nothing." he pulled his knees to his chest, "It's like talking to a wall."
"Stuff isn't gonna change overnight, Steve."
"I know. But...I can't help it. I just want Bucky back."
Nat took a deep breath. She thought of suggesting talking to Rose but wasn't sure the idea would be too good right now. On one hand, while she did in fact not kill him, which was kinda good. But on the other hand, she knew Rose to a certain degree and Steve to another. It was for the best if they were not at each other throats again.
"Give him time. We'll probably figure something out."
Steve looked at her.
"Are you still doubting the team?"
Steve softly smiled, "Yup." he chuckled
"Come on," she smacked his shoulder, getting up "Let's get breakfast. Then you can come back here and mope."
"I wasn't moping."
"Sure..." she drawled and extended her arm. Steve caught it and she pulled him up.
The duo made their way to the communal and found Bruce cleaning it up.
"What time is it?" Steve muttered, looking at the clock. It was nearly 10.30 AM.
"finally decided to have breakfast?" Bruce asked
Steve smiled, a little apologetically.
"Isn't today Thursday?" Nat asked, already seated on the island with her breakfast plate.
"Thor's sleeping. Tried waking him up for breakfast but he muttered some nonsense which now that I think of, wasn't exactly English." Bruce shrugged, "Probably tired or something." he picked some food containers and went to keep them in the fridge.
"Hey, we still have some leftovers from yesterday's lunch. Want some?"
"What's it?" Steve asked
"Pork Tenderloin."
"I'll have some," Nat said so Bruce pulled it and kept it on the counter.
"And there's some casserole, day before yesterday."
"Yeah, I'll finish it," Steve said
"We usually never have that much leftover. What's going on?" Nat asked
"Steve's been in the hospital. You weren't here." he turned, closing the fridge and keeping the rest on the counter, "Rose isn't eating as usual due to her meds."
He poured himself a bit of coffee and sat down opposite the two.
"Where's Clint and Starks?" Nat asked
"Clint already had breakfast. He went out to clear his head and think about the weekend meeting." he took a sip, "He's considering it."
"What about you?"
Bruce nodded, "Same. They aren't wrong. SHIELD's problem is now our problem. We have to deal with it one way or the other." He inhaled, "Tony went to his lab to work on something. I'm guessing a new suit. Rose didn't come down. JARVIS did tell me she had breakfast. So, I'm not that worried."
"Her breakfast is usually 2 PB&J sandwiches" Nat deadpanned
"something is better than nothing," Bruce chuckled, "Where were you this morning? I didn't see you coming from your morning run."
"I didn't go," Steve said
Bruce raised a brow.
One of the things he had always admired about Steve was his adherence to his own schedule. So it surprised him when Steve didn't go for his scheduled morning run.
"Are you alright?" he asked
"I'm fine. Physically. Mentally? That's..."
"fucked up." Nat provided, "And emotionally as well." she clicked her tongue at Steve with an amused smirk.
"What she said," Steve replied, glaring at her, but she just smiled.
"You can curse, you know. Drop an F-bomb here and there."
Steve just rolled his eyes.
"So what were you doing the whole morning?"
Steve looked at him, thinking for a moment.
"I was on floor 71. Where you guys have the Hulk-proofing done."
Steve was expecting Bruce to ask about what he was doing there or something like that. But instead, he asked,
"So...she told you?"
Steve furrowed his brows and looked at Nat, who looked equally surprised as she lowered her fork down to the plate.
"You knew?" she asked, swallowing her food
Bruce shrugged, "He is in the Hulk-proof chamber." he replied in a very 'duh' tone.
"Right..." Nat muttered, got off, and went to warm the leftovers in the microwave oven.
"When did she tell you?" he asked Steve
"Last night. Not in as many words as you'd expect," he pulled out the slip from his pocket and slid it towards Bruce.
Bruce snorted and hen slid back the paper, "did you talk to her?"
"Not yet. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to say. Besides, I shouldn't be looking at a gift horse in the mouth."
"Steve, you gotta talk to her."
Steve looked at him.
"Look, I know this may sound weird, but I'm saying this as some guy who's older and got some solid experience. It's better to just say some things to the people and get the answers than not and regretting it even years later."
There was a two-second silence and then Nat chuckled. "Tony's been rubbing on you with his dad mode."
Bruce chuckled got up and placed his cup in the sink and walked out.
The two remaining Avengers just sat there, eating in silence.
"why do you think she didn't tell me?"
"Hmm?"
"about Bucky?"
"I don't know. Maybe she didn't wanna risk your health. You were in the hospital. You were critical."
"I was fine."
She glared at him, "Fine? Do you have any idea what you looked like when she brought you back. You were blacked out. Entirely. If it wasn't for your pulse, which for your information, was pretty weak, we thought..." she looked down at her plate, taking a deep breath and serving herself the leftovers, "Clint was almost panicking. I was fucking worried. Rose didn't show it on her face but she was so close to crying when you didn't respond." she sat a bit straighter, "So maybe, yeah, she wanted to make sure you were fine before she dropped the nuclear bomb on your head."
Steve looked at her for a solid moment before he got off his seat and wrapped his arms around Nat.
She didn't protest or hug back, but she did lean a little into him.
"Thank you, Natasha."
She patted his arm, "Yeah, it's alright. That's enough, Rogers. You are pushing it now."
Steve chuckled and pulled back, going back to eating.
"what are you gonna say to Rose?" Nat asked
"Don't know. In fact, I'm not exactly sure I want to talk to her right now."
Rest of the day no one bothered him. He went back to the lab. He'd try and talk to his old friend from time to time, tell him tales of their childhood, memories, and incidents, hoping for something, a breakthrough. But it was all just like talking to a wall. No reactions. No response. That man would just sit in there and listen. Sometimes facing Steve, sometimes, looking the other way.
Steve brought him some lunch, which he didn't touch for a good while. Wanting to catch a break, Steve walked out to the nearby balcony and watched over the bustling city of Manhattan. And that gave him some time to think.
"Captain, Winter Soldier has eaten the food." JARVIS piped in after 10 minutes.
"Thanks, JARVIS." he responded.
He wasn't sure if it was possible but he could hear contempt and distrust in the voice of the AI when he talked about Bucky or Winter Soldier. So even the AI didn't trust Bucky. Wonderful.
"There you are. I thought you'd be in the lab." He looked over his shoulder to see Natasha walk in.
"Needed some fresh air to think."
She hopped up and settled on the wide railing of the balcony, facing inwards, slightly swinging her legs.
Steve looked her up and down. "Do you girls have no regard for safety when you decide to sit there of all places?"
"Rose does this too? Huh?" she chuckled
Steve tilted his head.
"I'll be fine. I won't fall. Anyway, what were you thinking?"
"don't you have other things to do?" he looked back at the city
"Actually, nope. I'm unemployed. And I have all the free time in the world."
"What about others?"
"Tony is having some time off with Pepper to get a break from everything that happened. Said something about his hair turning gray prematurely. And I'm guessing they'd be discussing this whole Avengers sitch."
"Are you going for it?"
Nat exhaled, staying silent for a minute, before she spoke up, "You know what, yeah. I'm in." she looked at the city, "On top of legal protection this would give me, I'd finally get a chance of doing the right thing. First KGB and then SHIELD-HYDRA screwed me over." she exhaled, "I just wanna do the right thing now." she looked at him, "And this is the right thing."
"I need a little more time," Steve replied
"You have till Saturday." she shrugged
"What about Bruce? Clint? Rose? Thor?"
"I went to see what Bruce was working on. He threatened to Hulk on me."
"Did you pester him that much?"
"I just wanted to spend some quality time with Brucie bear and bond with the team. Sue me."
Steve looked at her, amused, "That name for Bruce sounds better when Rose says it. Even Tony. You make it sound creepy."
He chuckled when she smacked him.
"Anyway, Clint's not back yet. Rose, according to JARVIS, is sleeping after a heavy dose of meds. Thor...I didn't wanna disturb him."
Steve chuckled
"So that leaves me with you..." she trailed off, "What were you thinking? Humor me."
Steve sighed, "Just wondering why Rose didn't do it."
Nat raised a brow.
"I'm not saying she should have. I'm thankful that she didn't. It's just... you were there. She was literally hell-bent on getting her revenge and killing him. And out of the blue, she changes her mind and gave me a chance to save him. And when I missed, she..." he looked at her confused, "saved him? That's doesn't make sense."
"Why are you looking the gift horse in the mouth?" she asked after some time
"I'm trying not to. It's hard. Rose...she's reasonable but she's just as stubborn as Tony if not more. Why would she change her mind so suddenly?"
There was a small silence as they both thought it through.
"What do you mean she gave you a chance?"
Steve swallowed and looked at her, "After that fight we had-"
"Where she threw across the room and almost stabbed you with a high-speed dagger?"
Steve nodded, "That, she came to see me after some time. Said she changed her mind and gave me a chance. Save him, kill him. It was my only shot. But if I failed, she'd kill him."
"You did fail."
"But she didn't kill him." Steve tsked, "She's goal-oriented. And such people just don't change their goals outta the blue."
Nat looked at him, "What exactly are you saying, Steve?"
Steve took a deep breath, "Nothing. I might be just overthinking this. Or something. I have no solid evidence. It's just..."
He pressed his lips and looked back at the city and took a deep breath.
"After I joined the team and SHIELD, I spent some time with Fury and the files he had on you guys. Just to know you guys a bit better. He regarded Rose as one of the best strategists he knew; that is what helped her run a multi-billion dollar empire when she was still a teenager, according to him. So after I moved in, I asked her to play chess with me. To check out her skills."
"Because Chess is a game of strategy?"
"And a game I'm good at if I say so myself." Steve nodded. "She is...good good. Too good. She'd win the majority of matches. I'm not exactly sure of it, her tactics, but I think I got some of it. She'd do this thing, where she'd get an important piece out, on purpose. Sometimes, rooks, bishops, knights, even the Queen a couple of times. But she'd still win."
"Lose the battle but win the war,"
"Exactly! I figured out most about her during those games. And she does use a lot of chess tactics in life, as far as I've seen. but there are some things about her that just don't make sense.
"When on a mission, she has tunnel vision. According to you guys, she's a leader material, yet she follows my orders without a question. She argues, but she listens. More than leading, she follows. Not a lotta leaders follow others like that. And the way she handled and led things during the Incident at Triskelion, her skills are no joke.
She doesn't even try to assert dominance. Or rebuff me. Tony does that sometimes. She doesn't. But she knows how to lead. How to strategize."
He glanced at At, who looked at him amused.
"I was rambling, wasn't I?"
"It was cute." she chuckled, "But you did figure her out somewhat, I guess. For the team leader, that's not bad observation."
"I like to think I figured all of you out somewhat." he smiled, "My point is, Rose, wouldn't just change her goal from one extreme to another. From killing someone to saving him. It's just...not her." he took a deep breath and lowered his voice, "Unless..."
Nat narrowed her eyes at him, studying him for a couple of minutes before speaking, "You don't think she has an ulterior motive about saving him, do you?"
"That'd make sense," he answered, this time a bit meeker than before. As if he was second-guessing himself. "I've never personally seen her do that, so I can't say. But...that'd make sense. Save him for now only to inflict something worse later."
Nat took a deep breath, "You are right."
"I am? What? About wh-"
"You are overthinking this. Way too much. Are you actually listening to yourself?" She chuckled humorlessly. "Maybe she does have some plan. Or...a solid reason why she didn't kill him. Or maybe she just wanted to...do you a favor! Not take your best friend from you, again! But this...Steve..." she sighed, "I think you are just making a mountain out of a molehill. You can't accuse her of something this big without listening to her side of the story. I don't know what you are going to say to her. But you have to say something. You have to talk to her."
She wet her lips and looked at the city and then back at him, "Look, I'm saying this as a friend. This team, right now, is hanging by a thread. One wrong step or one wrong decision could snap that thread. And we, as a superhero team, as not useful if we can't work together. Screw World security then. Don't stir a hornet's nest unnecessarily."
She jumped off the railing, "You said at the breakfast that you didn't wanna look the gift horse in the mouth. I think you shouldn't. Just be glad that you have the horse."
Steve nodded after a while.
"Good." she started walking.
"Where are you going?"
She turned around and faced him, "I'm gonna call some contacts. Maybe I could find a lead on breaking his brainwashing. While you...just stop overthinking."
"Be careful."
"You worry about yourself and that killing machine in the cage." with that she turned around and walked in.
Instead of going to her room, she went further on top and entered Rose's floor.
"JARVIS, where's she?"
"Miss is currently in her study."
"Thanks, J." she muttered and made her way to the study. Which was a bit hard to find, since Rose had quite a few doors and she had only ever been to her bedroom before. She finally heard her voice come from behind a door and knocked.
No reply.
She knocked again.
No reply.
Alright. Nat grabbed her doorknob and twisted it and pushed the door.
"Hey, Rose? I gotta talk to you ab-"
"Yeah Molly, I'll tell him that."
Nat stopped, taking the room in. And the girl.
Rose was sitting on what looked like a gaming chair(?) with one leg on the chair, rocking it. Her laptop, the MacBook she gifted her, was in front of her and headphones around her ear.
"Sure. Sure." she chuckled, glancing at her, as the duo locked eyes. "Hannah says I'll be fine in a month or so...6 weeks at least...One...Yes, Molly."
Nat internally winced. Bad timing!
"Of cours-...Hey! Arthur!... Could you please send some treacle tarts?"
Nat tried to pull out but Rose gestured her to enter. Nat did and closed the door softly behind her. She headed for the dark purple couch and sat down, making sure she was out of the MacBook's camera's frame.
The room was black and white with accents of purple and red. The wall behind Rose was utterly black and had some thick files on shelves and a framed photographs. Her desk had a modernistic touch and was black in color. It was a typical office room.
There were a few holo screens around in front of her that had some kind of scans running on them
"Hey, Ginny." she smiled, "I can come visi-...oh okay. Got it. Alright...Love you guys too. Not you Ginny...Yeah? Well, same to you, back to you, no backsies!"
She laughed and then closed the screen on the laptop and lowered her headphones.
"Hey,"
"Sorry. I didn't know you were on call."
"No biggie."
"Molly, Arthur, and Ginny?"
Rose nodded with a smile, "Yeah. She's visiting them and that bumbling idiot told them about what happened and I was in the hospital. So, had to call them to relieve them of some panic and worry."
"JARVIS said you were sleeping."
"I was," she yawned at that and licked her lips, "But then Ginny called and I came here to answer."
"What's special about this place?"
"It's dark and quiet." Rose chuckled. "It's nothing much. I took this call there, I'd fall asleep in the middle of it and I didn't wanna."
There a beep and Rose looked at the holoscreen, shifted a few contents, typed in something, and then sat back down.
"So...What happened?"
Nat took a deep breath and slightly leaned forward. "Steve and I know."
"About wha-Oh. Oh! Right!" she took a deep breath and pulled back. "You don't look mad? Are you?"
"Confused, more like it."
Rose licked her lips.
"I was talking to Steve. We both couldn't help but think why didn't you do it when you had your chance."
Rose blinked.
"Ms, Scan-A1 results are here." NYX piped in
"NYX, love, a second here. Important convo going on." Rose called back and then looked at Nat, "Right. Sorry. Yeah...you were saying..."
"Steve started overthinking. And he somehow thought that...you have an ulterior motive."
Rose raised a brow.
Nat looked at her emerald green eyes, "It is not like that, is it?"
Rose took a deep breath, "Nat, I got no idea what you are talking about? What ulterior motive?"
"Keep him alive now and then do worse."
Rose frowned and shook her head.
To her surprise, Nat frowned. "You sure?"
She nodded.
"Then why didn't you kill Winter Soldier?"
Rose blinked and then tilted her head, "Would you rather I have?"
"I don't know. That is between you and Steve. But...you were dead set on doing that. You wanted him dead. But you had the perfect opportunity and you didn't take your shot. I'm curious, Rose. Why?"
Rose took another deep breath.
"Alright. I did-"
"Ms. all the scan results are back. And there are some things you should see."
"NYX, darling, a second." she sighed, "Right. So here is it. I didn't kill the Winter Soldier despite having the perfect opportunity is bec-"
Suddenly all the screens turned red.
"Ms., NYX and I have found some data that need your immediate attention."
She frowned, looking at Nat, who looked equally confused.
Rose pulled back and turned towards her laptop and started typing, occasionally working with the holo screens. Her frown kept on deepening until her eyes widened.
"That motherfucker!" she muttered
"What is it?"
"Nat, get to the communal. Now. JARVIS, call everyone to the communal. this is super important. Urgent. Pronto."
"Notification sent, Ms."
Rose looked at Nat, "Go. I'll be there in a sec."
Nat nodded and then walked out. Once Rose made sure she was out of earshot, she looked at her computer. She looked at Nat's retreating form, as she took a deep breath. She then looked down, closed her laptop lid, picked her glasses and with her laptop, walked out.
When she entered the communal, most of them were except Tony and Clint.
"Where's D-"
"Hey," Tony came in, ruffled her hair, and then sat down on the seat.
"Okay. where's Clint?" she looked around, putting on her glasses.
"On his way back," Nat responded, pocketing her phone. She set her laptop on the table and got on her knees and started working on it.
"What is happening?" Thor asked
"After SHIELD collapsed, Fury gave me complete access to SHIELD archives to filter through and see if I can find anything. "
"You found something?" Nat asked,
"and it is not pretty."
The elevator chimed and Clint jogged in, "Sorry. Lost track of time. What happened? JARVIS said it was Code Red. Urgent."
He sat down on a seat, normalizing his breathing.
"He did not say Code Red," Rose replied, eyes on her screen
"He did."
"Merida, he did not. It is an urgent matter but he did not say Code Red." Tony chuckled
Clint raised a brow.
"Code Red in JARVIS's system is for when Dad's suit gets stuck," Rose answered smiling, as she continued to work on her laptop. It was hard to work with just one functional hand.
"Your suit gets stuck?" Clint looked at Tony.
"It's not that. It's-"
"Lemme rephrase. When Dad gets stuck inside his suit." she looked up and smiled at Tony who mock-frowned.
"Rose, what did you find?" Steve asked.
"Right. I had already asked NYX to go through SHIELD files. But after complete access, both NYX and JARVIS went through it, conglomerated SHIELD-HYDRA files and Zola's archives and whatever did manage to escape onto the internet and they found something."
She pulled down a holoscreen and presented her findings on the screen for everyone to see.
"Know these guys?" she asked, pulling a profile
"Strucker and List," Nat said, "Worked for Biotech division."
"HYDRA," Rose responded, "Zola's archives were ancient but spectacularly up to date. I also might have managed to small a small virus into his database which gave me more or less complete access."
"Wow," Clint chuckled
"Yay me," she deadpanned, "Anyway, NYX and JARVIS, came across this project of HYDRA's." she placed the files on the screen.
"I know the majority of it is redacted but my guys, my two wonderful guys, pieced the puzzles enough to get a somewhat clear picture. This projects is aimed on creating superhumans."
"Creating superhumans?" Steve asked
Rose nodded, "They were probably trying to recreate Hulk, you, Fantastic Four, I don't know. Or maybe something worse. But so far, they seem to be targeting twins for some reason. The first pair made it out of the experiments and showed some abilities, but they succumbed within 48 hours so their abilities couldn't be documented.
The second pair of twins never made it out. Died during the experiments. There are no records of a third pair getting in but I wouldn't be surprised if they already had their hands on one or two more pairs."
"We have to stop this," Thor spoke up
"We do."
"We can't," Rose said with a sigh
"what do you mean?"
Rose took a deep breath as she sat down on the floor. She licked her lips.
"These operations are taking place in another country. Hell, a whole another continent. We just cannot barge in another country and break their laws and do whatever we feel like. An international scandal is the last thing this team needs right now."
"But we can't let them go on like this."
"I'm not saying we should. I want to stop this as much as you do, Steve. But doing that, we'd worsening our situation. And we can't afford being canceled."
"Canceled?" Clint sat straighter, "What do you mean canceled?"
"Avengers was first and foremost a SHIELD initiative. That means we were indirectly overlooked by World Security Council. It was the council's job to handle other country's leaders and stuff; International politics and shit. But, the council is no longer there. And if we land in any trouble, we would be highly accountable to the public, the governments..." she licked her lips again, fiddling with her fingers, "We all wanna do the right thing. but we also need to do this the right way.
The public has been one of our biggest supporters, if not the biggest. If we make one small mistake, they could hype it up to enormous proportions. And if, God forbid, we end up losing their support, we are so fucking done. "
Heavy silence.
"Avengers Inc.?" Bruce asked
"Yeah." Rose nodded, "They are former SHIELD. They know what happened. And they know that we cannot stop them like this."
"all the more reason we should working fast." Tony softly piped in
"This is just one op my guys found out during preliminary scans. I don't how many are there."
Steve took a deep breath and then exhaled, "Anything else?"
Rose looked at him and nodded, "SHIELD had a project for level 9 and above. Project T.A.H.I.T.I. Dad and I knew about this because of our clearance, but we weren't into it. Basically, they were harvesting alien resources for medical purposes. Fury started the project around the same time he started the Avengers Initiative.
This project was made if one of us got fatally injured or worse, died. The project was supposed to revive us."
She looked at them and found them all listening keenly. Alright. Silence and calmness before the storm.
"Far as I knew the project was never put in use. That was until I found this." she pressed a couple of buttons on the laptop and a photo appeared on the screen, "It was taken last week."
It was a photo taken from a street camera but the person in focus was very clear.
"Coulson's alive?" Tony asked, immediately sitting straight.
Rose nodded. "JARVIS found this. He then traced the image online and...there are a bunch more appearances all over the world. Fury used T.A.H.I.T.I to revive Coulson and never told us."
"Did you know about this?" Nat looked at Rose
"No, I'm just as shocked," Rose replied. Honestly, she was more than shocked when JARVIS had pulled the image with the date stamp thirty minutes ago. Fury deserved a screaming call after this.
"Do we have a way of contacting him?" Tony asked
"I haven't found any phone numbers as of yet. But I'll keep digging." Rose nodded
"You have Fury's new number?" Nat asked
Rose nodded but didn't act.
"Ros-"
"Before you call him and rip him into a new one, can you just cool down a little and think."
"What is there to think about?" she asked
"There must be a good reason why Fury didn't tell us about Coulson."
Nat raised a brow, "Are you defending Fury? You trust him as far as you can throw him."
"Uh...not exactl-"
"We must talk to Fury," Thor said
"And I'm not stopping you. But right now, I don't think it's a good idea. You're pissed." she looked at Nat, "And Clint hasn't said a word. Honestly, that's terrifying me a little. So please. Can you just... I don't know..."
Clint loudly exhaled, "I don't know what is there to say. Coulson is alive. As usual, Fury kept it from us." he chuckled, "God knows how many secrets he's keeping from us even now." he got up and straightened his clothes, "I need some air." and walked off.
Nat saw his retreating form before following him out.
Rose took a deep breath and got up, closing her laptop and holoscreens.
"Where are you going?" Bruce asked
"To yell at Nick."
"I should come with you." Steve stood up
"You will not be appreciating, or liking, the language I'm gonna use. Best you stay here. I'll see what I can do." and she walked off.
She pretty much stomped to her bedroom, way too angry. Fury kept secrets. She wasn't surprised. It was who he was.
As someone who also kept tonnes of secrets as well, she couldn't be mad at him. But this? this was too much.
She was close to Phil, having known him for quite some time. She trusted him. Phil's death had hit her hard. Fury knew that. He had fucking received calls at 3 AM from her when she'd have nightmares and cry eyes out, mourning Phil. He knew what Phil meant to her. He fucking knew.
As soon as she reached her floor, she told JARVIS to not let anyone enter.
She slumped on the floor near the table, pulled out her phone, and called Fury.
"Rose," he greeted
"You motherfucker," she chuckled humorlessly, "You fucking motherfucker." she whispered
"Ros-"
"Phil is fucking alive and you motherfucking clotpole never even had a thought of telling us, did you?!"
There was just a deep breath from the other side.
"Did you?!" she demanded
"I had to follow the protocol."
"Fuck the protocol! How could you?!" she took a deep breath, running a hand through his head, "You really put protocols over people's feelings?"
"I did what I had to do."
"Right." she scoffed, "You did what you had to do. Right. You bastard." she muttered loud enough for him to hear, "You...fucking cunt." she chuckled humorlessly as she felt the tears prick her eyes. She was so mad she wasn't even sure what to say.
"Others know?"
She sniffed, wiping a couple of unshed tears, "Y-Yeah. yeah." she sniffed again, "Everyone's mad."
"I'd wager." he paused, "Tony?"
"Yep."
"Romanoff and Barton?"
"Crazy mad, yeah. Everyone." she sniffed, "Nick, this was a major fuck up, even for you. You could have told us, Nick. You had time. You had opportunities. You...you deliberately didn't."
Fury didn't say anything.
She sniffed and ran her hand over her face.
"You know what you are going to do, Nicholas Joseph Fury, you are going to come here. You gonna fly here right now, this instant, and you owe us all an apology and explanation. Do you hear me?"
"Ma-"
"If you did not do this, I swear on my fucking magic, I will hunt you down and bring you hear. You bloody know I can. So better get here before I loose all my respect for you, Uncle Nick."
With that, she hung up and tossed the phone on the couch.
She took a shuddering breath, running a hand through her hair. This was not how she expected her evening to go.
So...what are your views?
Besides, you know the drill.
Ciao
